General Packer News 2021
Moderators: NCF, salmar80, BF004, APB, Packfntk
I was wondering why he disappeared from sight, seemed like a good Bakh replacement:
"Tackle Jared Veldheer has been suspended by the Commissioner for the first six weeks of the 2021 season."
I'm guessing this is old news, but I wasn't aware
"Tackle Jared Veldheer has been suspended by the Commissioner for the first six weeks of the 2021 season."
I'm guessing this is old news, but I wasn't aware
IT. IS. TIME
Gutey said they are not making any changes at long snapper.
RIP JustJeff
RIP JustJeff
- lupedafiasco
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- Joined: 24 Mar 2020 17:17
Interesting. Cowboys are deep at WR. They could have just not had the room for him. This is some good tire kicking if I say so myself.
Cancelled by the forum elites.
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It seems like we have more than one Eagles already on the roster or the PS.
Athletic long striding deep threat with questionable hands and limited route running ability.
Athletic long striding deep threat with questionable hands and limited route running ability.
RIP JustJeff
Barely enough to operate. It's all in. Poisoning the cap core. About to go nuclear soon...
We want the ball so I can throw it to my Buddy Al never get tired of watching it, Hasselback didn't even look to see Al sitting up to jump that throw
I love Al Harris. He has always been likely in my top 10 favorite players.
But I always thought the legend of "we want the ball and we are going to score" is a bit exxagerated because it always gives the appearance that Hasselbeck threw an INT right away after saying those words.
But in reality, that wasn't the Hawks first drive in OT. The Hawks and Packers both went 3 and out to start OT. That was the Hawks 2nd drive.
But I always thought the legend of "we want the ball and we are going to score" is a bit exxagerated because it always gives the appearance that Hasselbeck threw an INT right away after saying those words.
But in reality, that wasn't the Hawks first drive in OT. The Hawks and Packers both went 3 and out to start OT. That was the Hawks 2nd drive.
- RingoCStarrQB
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Yep, that's no joke. I'm 1-1 in games.RingoCStarrQB wrote: ↑02 Sep 2021 20:24I was at that game. Playoff football at Lambeau is the best......except when the Packers lose.
Us reads viewers a fur. Thats guys a weeks shared reds.
Never forget where you came from....
Never forget where you came from....
long article but worth the reading, I brought it all because JS Online has a pay wall.
You're a unicorn': Elgton Jenkins' five-position versatility has never been more vital for Packers
Ryan Wood
Packers News
GREEN BAY - Out of options, Elgton Jenkins piled into his mother’s car on the weekend before signing day in 2014, clinging to one last shot at a Division I scholarship.
A 6-4 lineman with a slender, 270-pound build, Jenkins had done everything he could to attain an elusive offer. He traveled to college camps across the Southeast, unable to entice recruiters. He played both sides of the line, content to fill whatever position paid his tuition. College football was the dream, Jenkins says. Only one problem.
Almost nobody recruited him.
Jenkins was resigned to playing at East Mississippi Community College, a two-year program on the Alabama border. Far from NFL scouts that flocked to the SEC.
“Being a high school player from a small town,” Jenkins says, “there are not a lot of opportunities coming around. I thought I was going to have to go the long route.”
Days before the deadline to file a letter of intent, time was about to expire as Mom’s car pulled away from their Clarksdale, Mississippi, home, heading 150 miles southeast on back highways until they reached Mississippi State’s campus.
It wasn’t their first trip to Starkville. Before his senior season, Jenkins attended camp at Mississippi State with close friend and Clarksdale teammate J.T. Gray. He expected to return home with a scholarship offer. The Bulldogs offered Gray. Jenkins left camp empty handed, but he had an ally.
Green Bay Packers offensive guard Elgton Jenkins (74) provides pass protection during the second quarter of their game Saturday, December 19, 2020 at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wis. The Green Bay Packers beat the Carolina Panthers 24-16.
A week hardly passed during their senior season without Gray pitching Jenkins to Dan Mullen, Mississippi State’s coach at the time. There was an offensive lineman at Clarksdale who could play every position, Gray would tell Mullen. Jenkins had a tight end’s athleticism and interior offensive lineman’s power. Mullen, who declined an interview request for this story, had to come see for himself.
Finally, he did. Jenkins still didn’t receive an offer.
Then a last-minute invitation arrived. Another offensive lineman had flipped his commitment from Mississippi State to Ole Miss. Jenkins was welcomed for an official visit. His last chance to avoid the long route.
“They wanted me to come down,” Jenkins says, “and just see the facility.”
Jenkins is now an indispensable piece to what the Green Bay Packers hope is a Super Bowl roster, the reason an offense that led the NFL in scoring last fall believes it can weather half a season without All-Pro left tackle David Bakhtiari. He’s on the verge of becoming one of the league’s best offensive linemen, a former second-round pick who made the Pro Bowl in just his second year. The Packers will line him up at left tackle when they open their 2021 season Sunday against the New Orleans Saints, a risky decision for maybe any other guard.
Read Now in the e-Edition
His rise was unfathomable as he filed into Mullen’s office at the end of his official visit less than 72 hours before signing day. Finally, Jenkins had an offer. He took his one chance and ran with it. “I didn’t see that,” high school coach Henry Johnson says, “and a lot of colleges didn’t see that either.” There was one person who always did.
Jenkins can thank his best friend before kickoff Sunday.
J.T. Gray is now a safety and special-teams ace for the Saints.
‘On the straight and narrow’
Growing up in Clarksdale, a rural, low-income community of 15,000 residents in the nation’s poorest state, Jenkins overcame the odds before he arrived at Mississippi State.
Gangs offered an alternative to kids less focused on their future. Jenkins, protective of his hometown, won’t delve into the drugs and violence he encountered. “I’ve seen it,” he says. There were areas Clarksdale children dared not go after 10 p.m.
“Clarksdale is 99 percent free and reduced meals,” Johnson says. “It’s a low-income area, high-unemployment rate. A lot of high-risk kids come out of Clarksdale, Mississippi. It’s easy to get in trouble there, but Elgton was focused. Elgton was on the straight and narrow. He wouldn’t let anybody deter him from his goals.”
Football was Jenkins’ escape. On Friday nights, the town gathered to watch its heroes under the lights. Clarksdale won three Mississippi state championships in five years at the turn of this century, the last coming in 2001. Then the program went dormant. Before Jenkins and Gray arrived, its last district championship was 2007. A long drought for a small town prideful of its past.
Clarksdale began its ascent into contention behind Jenkins and Gray. The Wildcats had a winning 7-5 record in their senior season, advancing to the second round of the state playoffs. They ended their streak of no district championships last season.
Today, Johnson says, the program has 21 players in college football, from the SEC and Big Ten to junior college.
“They put us on the map,” Johnson says.
Saints defensive back J.T. Gray will compete against longtime friend Elgton Jenkins on Sunday.
In Gray, Jenkins found a kindred spirit, wired with the same drive to resist Clarksdale's temptations. They met as 8-year-olds on the same youth league team. Jenkins, already standing 5-foot-8 back then, was the biggest player on the field. Gray, entering his third season with the Saints, was the fastest. “We were winning a lot of games together,” Gray says, “and that’s when we started to get acquainted.” They became more acquainted in high school.
Gray also played both sides back then, rushing for 16 touchdowns his senior season. Jenkins paved the way as his lead blocker. “He put a lot of guys on their back,” Gray says, “and he’d just make it look normal.” Gray knew there was nothing normal about Jenkins’ ability to run the open field like a receiver and finish plays with pancake block
“Every time he’d pull,” Gray says, “he would create this big hole for me. Everybody would be cheering for me, but they never paid attention to where it started from, which was 74. He created that hole, and I could just run through there untouched.”
They made a childhood pact to play for the same college team, but Gray found his path to Division I much easier. A late bloomer, Jenkins didn’t start gaining the weight needed to dominate in the trenches until his sophomore season.
Charles Reid, who coached Jenkins in his first three seasons at Clarksdale, says his young lineman had the athleticism to play any position on the field. “He’s always had really good feet,” Reid said, “which is the thing I see in him right now.” Even after bulking up, Jenkins never lost those good feet.
“The speed he has as an O lineman,” Gray says, “it’s not normal.”
Johnson, who only coached Jenkins as a senior, remembers him as a “humble giant” at Clarksdale. His eyes widened when he first met Jenkins the summer before his final year. If his new team came packaged with athletes like this, Johnson thought, opponents were in trouble.
He quickly learned Clarksdale did not. Jenkins was unique.
“He played both ways,” Johnson says, “and didn’t ever come off the field in that league. We had to use him. Because he was just so much better than other guys. He was dominating on both sides of the ball. Teams started running away from him on defense, and they knew we were going to run behind him on offense.
“Elgton wouldn’t come out of the game. I’m like, ‘Elgton, we’ve got to give you a breather.’ He’d wave us back and go, ‘No, coach. No, I’ve got to go.’ He wouldn’t come out of the game.”
If Jenkins dominated both sides of the line of scrimmage, major college programs didn’t notice. Gray entered his senior season already securing a scholarship offer from Mississippi State. “They really wanted J.T.,” Reid says. “They were recruiting J.T., and his best friend was Elgton. So, yeah, they really got a steal with that one.” Gray waited to commit until Jenkins could fulfill their pact.
They submitted their letters of intent together on signing day. Gray was determined the Bulldogs would see in his high school teammate what nobody saw coming, but he already knew.
Jenkins was about to become the most versatile blocker in college football.
‘A unicorn’
Brian Gutekunst watched from afar, fascinated with the Mississippi State offensive lineman who could plug any position.
Jenkins played more than 400 snaps at tackle as a redshirt freshman. He split more than 500 snaps at tackle and guard as a sophomore. When the Bulldogs needed a center midway through his college career, Jenkins started his final 26 games in the middle of their line.
There was nothing he couldn’t do.
Packers guard Elgton Jenkins protects quarterback Aaron Rodgers during a 2020 game at Detroit.
“I remember watching that with a group,” Gutekunst says, “and being astonished.”
In closed circles, Jenkins’ versatility became a favorite topic among scouts before the 2019 NFL draft. Guards and tackles struggle enough switching from the line’s right or left side. Few linemen have the blend of speed and power to master all five spots. “When I do it,” Jenkins says, “people always say, ‘You’re a unicorn.’ To me, I just do it.” For Jenkins, playing all five positions is the only thing he has ever known.
Gutekunst couldn’t stop watching the film. Usually, the Packers draft college tackles and turn them into NFL guards. In Jenkins, Gutekunst saw a starting SEC center with the athleticism to fill in at tackle in an emergency. “We certainly felt he had the versatility to play all five spots,” Gutekunst says, “from a could he get you out of a game at tackle.” Jenkins was drafted with the 44th overall pick in 2019. Big things are expected of offensive linemen drafted that high.
Looking back, Gutekunst says, he had no clue what Jenkins would become.
“To say that he could go out there and do what he’s doing right now,” the GM says, “I think that’s hard to predict.”
Reid always thought Jenkins would have a chance in the right college program. At Mississippi State, Jenkins pounded protein like his career depended on it. He lived in the weight room. Reid, who has known Jenkins his whole life, remembers not recognizing the kid he coached midway through his Mississippi State career.
Nobody predicted Jenkins’ versatility would be so unrivaled. Even now, Jenkins struggles to pinpoint which position is his best. He has company. Reid says Jenkins’ quick feet make him suited to block out in space at tackle. Johnson played Jenkins at left guard as a high school senior and still believes it’s his best. Gray, citing Jenkins’ football IQ in their frequent Madden matchups, not to mention their time together at Mississippi State, says his mind is best used at center.
His versatility is so rare, it befuddles teammates. Aaron Rodgers approached Jenkins in camp last month, once it became clear the Pro Bowl left guard would become his blindside blocker early this season, and asked the same question everyone wants to know.
Which position is Elgton Jenkins’ best?
“He said, ‘Shoot, it don’t matter,’” Rodgers recalls, laughing at the absurdity of Jenkins’ answer. “I said, ‘No, seriously. Is it left guard maybe? You played the most there.’
“He goes, ‘No, it don’t matter.’”
Eventually, Rodgers suggests, Jenkins might want to find a home along the offensive line. There’s a financial benefit to sticking at one position. For now, the Packers will appreciate their fortune for drafting a guard who can be a starting left tackle, where he’ll play Sunday. If Jenkins keeps Rodgers’ jersey clean, the Packers can thank at least one Saints defender.
They live across the country now, but Jenkins and Gray still talk most days. Even this week. They’ve come a long way since being the biggest, fastest on Clarksdale’s youth football fields. Two-way starters in high school. Four-year roommates in college. The last-minute scholarship offer that made it all possible.
There will be plenty to reminisce over Sunday as the two lifelong friends stand side by side before kickoff, this time wearing different jerseys, knowing what it took to get here.
You're a unicorn': Elgton Jenkins' five-position versatility has never been more vital for Packers
Ryan Wood
Packers News
GREEN BAY - Out of options, Elgton Jenkins piled into his mother’s car on the weekend before signing day in 2014, clinging to one last shot at a Division I scholarship.
A 6-4 lineman with a slender, 270-pound build, Jenkins had done everything he could to attain an elusive offer. He traveled to college camps across the Southeast, unable to entice recruiters. He played both sides of the line, content to fill whatever position paid his tuition. College football was the dream, Jenkins says. Only one problem.
Almost nobody recruited him.
Jenkins was resigned to playing at East Mississippi Community College, a two-year program on the Alabama border. Far from NFL scouts that flocked to the SEC.
“Being a high school player from a small town,” Jenkins says, “there are not a lot of opportunities coming around. I thought I was going to have to go the long route.”
Days before the deadline to file a letter of intent, time was about to expire as Mom’s car pulled away from their Clarksdale, Mississippi, home, heading 150 miles southeast on back highways until they reached Mississippi State’s campus.
It wasn’t their first trip to Starkville. Before his senior season, Jenkins attended camp at Mississippi State with close friend and Clarksdale teammate J.T. Gray. He expected to return home with a scholarship offer. The Bulldogs offered Gray. Jenkins left camp empty handed, but he had an ally.
Green Bay Packers offensive guard Elgton Jenkins (74) provides pass protection during the second quarter of their game Saturday, December 19, 2020 at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wis. The Green Bay Packers beat the Carolina Panthers 24-16.
A week hardly passed during their senior season without Gray pitching Jenkins to Dan Mullen, Mississippi State’s coach at the time. There was an offensive lineman at Clarksdale who could play every position, Gray would tell Mullen. Jenkins had a tight end’s athleticism and interior offensive lineman’s power. Mullen, who declined an interview request for this story, had to come see for himself.
Finally, he did. Jenkins still didn’t receive an offer.
Then a last-minute invitation arrived. Another offensive lineman had flipped his commitment from Mississippi State to Ole Miss. Jenkins was welcomed for an official visit. His last chance to avoid the long route.
“They wanted me to come down,” Jenkins says, “and just see the facility.”
Jenkins is now an indispensable piece to what the Green Bay Packers hope is a Super Bowl roster, the reason an offense that led the NFL in scoring last fall believes it can weather half a season without All-Pro left tackle David Bakhtiari. He’s on the verge of becoming one of the league’s best offensive linemen, a former second-round pick who made the Pro Bowl in just his second year. The Packers will line him up at left tackle when they open their 2021 season Sunday against the New Orleans Saints, a risky decision for maybe any other guard.
Read Now in the e-Edition
His rise was unfathomable as he filed into Mullen’s office at the end of his official visit less than 72 hours before signing day. Finally, Jenkins had an offer. He took his one chance and ran with it. “I didn’t see that,” high school coach Henry Johnson says, “and a lot of colleges didn’t see that either.” There was one person who always did.
Jenkins can thank his best friend before kickoff Sunday.
J.T. Gray is now a safety and special-teams ace for the Saints.
‘On the straight and narrow’
Growing up in Clarksdale, a rural, low-income community of 15,000 residents in the nation’s poorest state, Jenkins overcame the odds before he arrived at Mississippi State.
Gangs offered an alternative to kids less focused on their future. Jenkins, protective of his hometown, won’t delve into the drugs and violence he encountered. “I’ve seen it,” he says. There were areas Clarksdale children dared not go after 10 p.m.
“Clarksdale is 99 percent free and reduced meals,” Johnson says. “It’s a low-income area, high-unemployment rate. A lot of high-risk kids come out of Clarksdale, Mississippi. It’s easy to get in trouble there, but Elgton was focused. Elgton was on the straight and narrow. He wouldn’t let anybody deter him from his goals.”
Football was Jenkins’ escape. On Friday nights, the town gathered to watch its heroes under the lights. Clarksdale won three Mississippi state championships in five years at the turn of this century, the last coming in 2001. Then the program went dormant. Before Jenkins and Gray arrived, its last district championship was 2007. A long drought for a small town prideful of its past.
Clarksdale began its ascent into contention behind Jenkins and Gray. The Wildcats had a winning 7-5 record in their senior season, advancing to the second round of the state playoffs. They ended their streak of no district championships last season.
Today, Johnson says, the program has 21 players in college football, from the SEC and Big Ten to junior college.
“They put us on the map,” Johnson says.
Saints defensive back J.T. Gray will compete against longtime friend Elgton Jenkins on Sunday.
In Gray, Jenkins found a kindred spirit, wired with the same drive to resist Clarksdale's temptations. They met as 8-year-olds on the same youth league team. Jenkins, already standing 5-foot-8 back then, was the biggest player on the field. Gray, entering his third season with the Saints, was the fastest. “We were winning a lot of games together,” Gray says, “and that’s when we started to get acquainted.” They became more acquainted in high school.
Gray also played both sides back then, rushing for 16 touchdowns his senior season. Jenkins paved the way as his lead blocker. “He put a lot of guys on their back,” Gray says, “and he’d just make it look normal.” Gray knew there was nothing normal about Jenkins’ ability to run the open field like a receiver and finish plays with pancake block
“Every time he’d pull,” Gray says, “he would create this big hole for me. Everybody would be cheering for me, but they never paid attention to where it started from, which was 74. He created that hole, and I could just run through there untouched.”
They made a childhood pact to play for the same college team, but Gray found his path to Division I much easier. A late bloomer, Jenkins didn’t start gaining the weight needed to dominate in the trenches until his sophomore season.
Charles Reid, who coached Jenkins in his first three seasons at Clarksdale, says his young lineman had the athleticism to play any position on the field. “He’s always had really good feet,” Reid said, “which is the thing I see in him right now.” Even after bulking up, Jenkins never lost those good feet.
“The speed he has as an O lineman,” Gray says, “it’s not normal.”
Johnson, who only coached Jenkins as a senior, remembers him as a “humble giant” at Clarksdale. His eyes widened when he first met Jenkins the summer before his final year. If his new team came packaged with athletes like this, Johnson thought, opponents were in trouble.
He quickly learned Clarksdale did not. Jenkins was unique.
“He played both ways,” Johnson says, “and didn’t ever come off the field in that league. We had to use him. Because he was just so much better than other guys. He was dominating on both sides of the ball. Teams started running away from him on defense, and they knew we were going to run behind him on offense.
“Elgton wouldn’t come out of the game. I’m like, ‘Elgton, we’ve got to give you a breather.’ He’d wave us back and go, ‘No, coach. No, I’ve got to go.’ He wouldn’t come out of the game.”
If Jenkins dominated both sides of the line of scrimmage, major college programs didn’t notice. Gray entered his senior season already securing a scholarship offer from Mississippi State. “They really wanted J.T.,” Reid says. “They were recruiting J.T., and his best friend was Elgton. So, yeah, they really got a steal with that one.” Gray waited to commit until Jenkins could fulfill their pact.
They submitted their letters of intent together on signing day. Gray was determined the Bulldogs would see in his high school teammate what nobody saw coming, but he already knew.
Jenkins was about to become the most versatile blocker in college football.
‘A unicorn’
Brian Gutekunst watched from afar, fascinated with the Mississippi State offensive lineman who could plug any position.
Jenkins played more than 400 snaps at tackle as a redshirt freshman. He split more than 500 snaps at tackle and guard as a sophomore. When the Bulldogs needed a center midway through his college career, Jenkins started his final 26 games in the middle of their line.
There was nothing he couldn’t do.
Packers guard Elgton Jenkins protects quarterback Aaron Rodgers during a 2020 game at Detroit.
“I remember watching that with a group,” Gutekunst says, “and being astonished.”
In closed circles, Jenkins’ versatility became a favorite topic among scouts before the 2019 NFL draft. Guards and tackles struggle enough switching from the line’s right or left side. Few linemen have the blend of speed and power to master all five spots. “When I do it,” Jenkins says, “people always say, ‘You’re a unicorn.’ To me, I just do it.” For Jenkins, playing all five positions is the only thing he has ever known.
Gutekunst couldn’t stop watching the film. Usually, the Packers draft college tackles and turn them into NFL guards. In Jenkins, Gutekunst saw a starting SEC center with the athleticism to fill in at tackle in an emergency. “We certainly felt he had the versatility to play all five spots,” Gutekunst says, “from a could he get you out of a game at tackle.” Jenkins was drafted with the 44th overall pick in 2019. Big things are expected of offensive linemen drafted that high.
Looking back, Gutekunst says, he had no clue what Jenkins would become.
“To say that he could go out there and do what he’s doing right now,” the GM says, “I think that’s hard to predict.”
Reid always thought Jenkins would have a chance in the right college program. At Mississippi State, Jenkins pounded protein like his career depended on it. He lived in the weight room. Reid, who has known Jenkins his whole life, remembers not recognizing the kid he coached midway through his Mississippi State career.
Nobody predicted Jenkins’ versatility would be so unrivaled. Even now, Jenkins struggles to pinpoint which position is his best. He has company. Reid says Jenkins’ quick feet make him suited to block out in space at tackle. Johnson played Jenkins at left guard as a high school senior and still believes it’s his best. Gray, citing Jenkins’ football IQ in their frequent Madden matchups, not to mention their time together at Mississippi State, says his mind is best used at center.
His versatility is so rare, it befuddles teammates. Aaron Rodgers approached Jenkins in camp last month, once it became clear the Pro Bowl left guard would become his blindside blocker early this season, and asked the same question everyone wants to know.
Which position is Elgton Jenkins’ best?
“He said, ‘Shoot, it don’t matter,’” Rodgers recalls, laughing at the absurdity of Jenkins’ answer. “I said, ‘No, seriously. Is it left guard maybe? You played the most there.’
“He goes, ‘No, it don’t matter.’”
Eventually, Rodgers suggests, Jenkins might want to find a home along the offensive line. There’s a financial benefit to sticking at one position. For now, the Packers will appreciate their fortune for drafting a guard who can be a starting left tackle, where he’ll play Sunday. If Jenkins keeps Rodgers’ jersey clean, the Packers can thank at least one Saints defender.
They live across the country now, but Jenkins and Gray still talk most days. Even this week. They’ve come a long way since being the biggest, fastest on Clarksdale’s youth football fields. Two-way starters in high school. Four-year roommates in college. The last-minute scholarship offer that made it all possible.
There will be plenty to reminisce over Sunday as the two lifelong friends stand side by side before kickoff, this time wearing different jerseys, knowing what it took to get here.
RIP JustJeff
This is our year.
Love you Cobb.
Love you Cobb.
RIP JustJeff
RIP JustJeff